Introductory - Global Sikh Studies

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in following them…. The Muktas placed the matter in writing before
the Guru, who said, ‘I have created the Panth for the sake of
maintaining the Dharm. I do not want it to lose its purity.’ The Granth
says: ‘The distinction of good and bad is obliterated, and no one thinks
of religion.’ All the four castes have the same status. I consider all of
them to be equal and of one brotherhood. There is no doubt on this
score. The Muktas are the life of my life. What they say is approved
by me. 2a
In the same Rehatnama, Chaupa Singh writes at another place,
‘The Sikh should have marriage alliance only with a Sikh, ‘preferably
have alliance with a poor Sikh. Such a step brings them nearer to the
Guru.
Yet, Chaupa Singh, as his writings show, retained his prejudice
against inter-caste marriages. He has quoted Guru Nanak’s hymn, “All
the people have become of one Verna; the path of Dharma is sullied.”
From this hymn Chaupa Singh appears to draw the inference that the
Guru did not approve of intermarriage between castes. But, this
sentence of the hymn is only sequence of the previous part of the
hymn which says that “The Kshatriyas have given up their Dharma by
owing the foreign language.” As there is no other mention of Varna
(Caste) in the rest of the hymn, and people could not be reduced to
one Varna just by owing the foreign language, the right interpretation
of the hymn is that all people have been reduced to the same low level
by collaborating with the foreign rulers. Thus Chaupa Singh’s evidence
about anti-casteism carries unusual weight. He retains his caste
prejudice and puts a wrong interpretation on the hymn in support of
his view, but he is constrained to state that the Guru regarded all the
four castes as of equal status and clearly advised that the instructions
of the Muktas regarding inter-caste marriages had his approval.
The originality of the Sikh tradition, on some points, helps us to
view other questions in their proper perspective. For example, it is
said that the Janamsakhis were recorded some sixty years after the
death of Guru Nanak; hence these cannot be regarded as weighty
evidence of Guru Nanak’s life and mission. This problem can be seen
in a different light as well. The testimony of the later-recorded Sikh
tradition on those points, in which it runs counter to the Indian tradition